The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-02

anu IredSOn Ddr1eQ IN the grave OF
rebellion.
/ am not tere today to stir up national
slr1Ie OF awaken q single bitter recollection.
but would be recreant to my comrades
living and dead shorld fail to declare that
! beleve on the part OF the south the war
consoles and wickedly wanton, and he
gun and waged TO perpetuate slavery, and
believe that our soldiers vino died had fallen
in vain, had the war closed while there re-
manned single slave under the stars and
stripes.
IL was the only war ever waged where the
vanquished, by losing their slaves. gained
their own freedom. When Hannibal
marched into Italy he stroye not to free
Carthage, but TO ensl2vc Rome Caesar
fought not TOR the benefit of mankind, but
for the tribnte of Gsul and the glory of
himself and his legions.
The thirty years war brought no gladness
! TO the fireside of the peasant, no comfort to
the cabins of the poor. Millions of lives
have been sacrificed and countries wasted
| by ire and sword among the enlightened
nations of Europe IN order to settle the title
| to a throne, or avenge an imagined slight to
royaly, when rapacious monsrchs with
honorable ruffians in their hire caused war
to rage and blood around to pour"
| Pride, ambition, envy, avarice, all nave
| called to their service the soldiery OF the
| ancient andl modern times. War has been
| the Scourge and the purifycr of humanity.
| In the worlds history every great moral
| or intellectual emancipation of mankind
has been accomplished through blood, every
great religious or political reform from the
| accession of AustaRtine to the throne of
ROmc.tO the downfall of the NapoliOnic dYnS-
/ ty at Waterloo has been marked by blood
shed. Every race or nation of people which
has broken the chains that held it in physl-
/ cal or moral bondage has come up through a
baptism of blood,
| When God was preparing the coildren of
| Israel for the great mission he gave them,
| the philosopher and law-giver TO lead and
| train them in obedience, self-denial and
| their dependence upon the Great JehoYiah:
! but when they had been trained and diSci-
pinned in the desert and wilderness. Moses,
| the teacher was taken from them, and
Joshua, the soldier, placed in his stead:
| When Israel had lain captive in Babylon till
they became fit to rebuild the temple and
| re possess the land of their fathers, God
raised up Cyrus, the great captain to liber-
| ate and restore them.
| When the mould and rust of returning
barbarism began to devour the v1tals OF
| Calvin and Knox had sounded the Keynote
OF a new moral existence, Gustavus AdOi-
pins. Friedrich the Great and Cromwell,
and a host of kindred spirits carried the
new banner of the cross out of the
midst of Ignorance and super
stition, to religious. moral freedom;
i From Calvary TO AppOmattoX men ana
nations have been cleansed OF sin and error
by blood.
! the highest blessings. Schools and universe
| ties may teach and eulogiZe liberty but can
not liSerate. AS the purest gold comes
through the hottest fire; so the most inesti
| ma hle gifts o mankind have come up from
| the smok and clash of battle. The highest
| national achievements have been born OF
| battle and clothed in blood.
| The nation that is willing TO defend its
lib rites with the sword will seldom bow
| its neck to the yoke of the tyrant. believe
| there were no human IneaCs by which this
nation could have been cleansed trcm the
Ieprosy OF slavery but by the blood of an
| heroic people.
the Triumph of the Union arms opened q
new era of prosperity and blessings to ouI
| country; it broke down the banners to
| social and commercial intercourse between
| two hitherto separate and jealous sections
| of the country; it united two discordant
and antagonistic peoples; it gave conf.
dence to capital, stimulOiIs to commerce
| By it the dormant energies of the slave
| states became aroused and the new south
| became q living possibility. Is there one OF
| nv hearers to-day who believes that the
| great exposition at New Orleans could have
| nourished in the shadows of slavery or be.
| side the auction block, when men and
| women were bought and sold.
| At the close of the war the Union army
! contained more than 100000 trained sol
| diers-men who had marched and tOiled and
| fought; men who had crossed bayonets with
| brave foe, and felt the hot breath of the
cannon upon their faces. With less than 9
tenth of this number Caesar crushed
| Pompey, and made himself master of I'm
| perial Rome. With less than one-ffteenth
of this number OF poorly armed and fmper-
fectly disciplined troops Cromwell beheaded
| Great Britain With less than third OF
this number Bonaparte placed the imperial
| cOrOnent upon his dow. auQ rnade rance
| the dictator of Continental Europe.
l. With the army that Grant commanded
| when Lee and Johnston surrendered, he
| could have dictated what terms be chose to
the American people. No such army after
| such a war as it had fought had ever before
IN the worlds history, had been probably
| disbanded.
The most hopeful among us hardly ex-
| pected 1uch a vast body of men to surren-
| der the absolute power they possessed by
| them without some disturbance. Our ene-
| mics believed that the army would subvert
| the government it had restored but this vast
body of meR-an army create r than Alexan-
| der led in his marches of triumph, which
| had learned the trade of war amid the rattle
| of musketry, the booming of cannon and the
| slaughter of thousands of their comrades,
quietly disbanded and quickly found their
| way into all the peaceful avocatiOns OF life.
Such an army had never before in the
| worlds history Voluntarily abandoned the
glories and excitement of war for the
| farm, the Office and the workshop. They
| had in their power to compel the country to
4 meke provisions for their future support
l and compensate them for past privations
and dangers. 1t could have demanded and
| compelled the parceling out OF the public
| domain among them, or like the followers of
| William the COnquerOr, have divided among
| themselves the country they had
| conquered, but with magnanim
ity equalled Only by their courage,
they stacked their arms in the midst of the
palaces and boarded millions of the rich and
thousands of them returned to comfol tless